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Emerging Chemical Advisory & Litigation

E&W Law has highly skilled environmental practitioners and litigators who address contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and microbial contaminants, covering use, presence, regulation, and risk.
E&W’s Emerging Chemical Advisory & Litigation Team brings together the expertise of Susan Bodine, the former top U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) environmental enforcement officer; Brent Fewell, a former EPA Office of Water official; John Sheehan, a former top-tier U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) trial counsel; and other experienced environmental attorneys who focus on water issues for municipal and private water utilities. This unique combination enables E&W to provide legal counsel that not only offers strong litigation services but also recognizes and understands the complex regulatory environment and other challenges that companies and communities must navigate while supplying clean drinking water to their citizens.
CECs span numerous chemical categories. With centuries of collective experience in chemical regulation, health, and environmental matters, E&W’s legal team is among the most qualified in the nation to assist with CEC regulatory, permitting, and litigation matters. PFAS is a broad class of thousands of chemicals, including partially fluorinated substances, polymers, and ill-defined reaction products. EPA’s fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) focuses on PFAS compounds under EPA’s new and revised methods 533 and 537. Endocrine disruptors (EDCs) include pesticides, chemicals, and environmental contaminants that affect estrogen, androgen, thyroid, and other human receptors and hormone systems. Nanomaterials are a diverse class of substances found in more than 1,800 consumer products and include structural components as small as 1 nanometer (nm) and some ultrafine particles (UFPs).

E&W’s Strengths

  • Decades of experience with regulation, scientific and technical legal issues and analysis, chemical fate, transport and exposure; human and environmental effects legal criteria and analysis (acute and chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, flammability/explosivity, persistent, bioaccumulative criterion).

  • Nationally recognized litigators, acknowledged for our work in environmental litigation. Our environmental litigators include experience with precedent setting Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA” or Superfund), Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, and Oil Pollution Act matters.

  • Two of our environmental litigators were senior litigators at DOJ and are skilled in high stakes environmental litigation.

  • Fully engaged in the factual issues, working on cases involving those PFAS chemicals subject to regulation and with potential to present adverse health and environmental effects, status of regulatory and scientific determinations on specific PFAS compounds.

  • Experts in potential fate and transport of studied PFAS compounds, the history of PFAS use, the media via which they enter the environment and potential impacts on human health. We work closely with consultants with the technical expertise to address these issues.

  • Track PFAS cases around the country, as well as developments internationally, and know what facts are presented in other cases and what legal strategies are being used by litigants. We know the intricacies of the governing law. We are also actively monitoring and representations involving the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation.

  • E&W Law attorneys have extensive experience representing utilities, businesses, and regulators, national and local groups of water and wastewater utilities. We have deep ties throughout the industry.

  • We understand the government’s point of view. At the federal level, our team includes John Sheehan, a former United States Department of Justice senior trial attorney from the Environment and Natural Resources Division and Brent Fewell, a former United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water Official, and numerous former Federal and State regulatory and litigation attorneys.

  • Numerous attorneys with technical and scientific degrees, training and decades of experience in chemistry, biology, chemical engineering, toxic substances.
PFAS Advisory Litigation
PFAS Advisory Litigation2

Representative Experience

  • Victoria Carey, et al. v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours and The Chemours Company, et al., No. 7:17-CV-201-D (E.D.N.C): Our attorneys assisted in discovery in this case of the key documents and assisted with issues involving chemical specific issues.

     

  • In re: Decatur, Alabama EPA investigation and response, assisting municipal wastewater system, manufacturers.

  • Johnson v. 3M, N.D. Ga. 4:20-cv-00008-AT all aspects of litigation

  • E&W assisted municipal authorities and several states in analyzing possible litigation to recover costs of natural resource damages and the cost of adding additional treatment systems.

  • Representation of Municipal Airport: E&W was retained by a municipality operating a regional airport to advise and build a strategy to resolve liability regarding historical groundwater contamination issues resulting from a past lessee’s operation of the airport’s ancillary facilities (aerospace manufacturing). The client’s international airport also faced storm water permit enforcement actions arising from de-icing and other chemical use at the airport thus creating additional enforcement liability and uncertainty. E&W successfully negotiated with other responsible parties to achieve voluntary remediation of historical contamination and defend its client against threatened state enforcement.

  • Representation of Water Utility: E&W advised a water utility on regulatory and litigation strategy for PFOS/PFOA contamination of the utility’s drinking water source. The representation included coordinating with state environmental regulators and disclosure to the general public.

  • Assist companies with management of regulated or environmentally sensitive PFAS compounds.